Page 58

ORION

The sound tore through the house—sharp, guttural, unmistakable.

I straightened, the warmth of the moment gone in an instant. A cold dread pooled in its place.

“Louise,” Eve whispered, panic tightening every syllable.

Her body tensed, eyes snapping to the door. She was going to run.

I moved first, blocking her path.

“Get out of my way.”

“Eve. I need you to stay. I’ll handle this,” I kept my voice low, steady—barely. She heard the crack in it.

“Like hell you will!” She shoved my chest, her magic flaring beneath her skin, hot and wild.

“We need to go—Louise—”

“Stop.”

I caught her face in my hands, held her still. Her eyes burned, furious and terrified.

“Listen to me,” I said, steel in my voice. “You’re staying here. I’m not losing you tonight. And I won’t let you lose what’s left of your family.”

“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. Her defiance splintered at the edges. Her magic pulsed again, but I didn’t let go. “I can’t just hide—”

“You need to trust me,” I said, sharper now. “This isn’t a debate, Sunshine.”

Her resistance faltered.

I turned toward the door.

“Wait—”

“Stay,” I said, throwing one last look over my shoulder. Let her see the fire in my eyes. Let her believe I’d keep my word even if the pressure nearly caved my chest in.

Then I was gone, the door clicking shut behind me.

I paused, just for a breath. Her scent still clung to me—cinnamon and heat. My chest ached with it. I’d told her to stay. Swore I’d protect them.

The hallway stretched ahead, dark and silent. My magic thrummed beneath my skin, electric. Like it knew something was down there. Waiting.

I took the stairs two at a time. Every step pressed heavier on my chest. Eve was safe—for now. Louise, Darcy, Lila… they might not be.

Bringing Eve here had been reckless. I knew it the second I heard that scream.

I just wanted her to smile, even if it was a lie I carved with my own damn hands.

Shame prickled down the back of my neck, hot and crawling, like my body couldn’t contain the weight of it.

I should’ve known better. I did know better.

But regret wouldn’t save them.

A second scream tore through the house, sharper, desperate.

I split into my astral form mid-stride, the pull of it nearly tripping me. Splitting always blurred the edges, making it harder to fight, harder to focus. But I needed the edge—my astral couldn’t die.

It shot ahead—weightless, fast. Tension buzzed through the link between us.

At the bottom of the stairs, the air changed—hot, metallic, thick with the stench of blood and burning magic.

Chaos exploded from the living room. Glass shattered like gunfire. Furniture splintered, wood cracking under inhuman weight.

Then—

A sickening thud. Flesh against drywall.

Darcy.

The daema were everywhere—clawed hands raking through curtains, snarling mouths smeared with blood, their shrieks a chorus of teeth. One crouched over the armchair, its claws slick with blood, dragging deep gouges into the upholstery as if it couldn’t stop tearing. Not hunting—playing.

Another hunched near the fireplace, its jaws working over something I couldn’t see, wet, crunching sounds filling the room.

The air reeked of copper and ozone—like scorched meat and static. Magic tainted by something older, wrong. It clung to my tongue, thick and cloying.

And then I saw Darcy—crumpled by the coffee table, her arm at the wrong angle, blood blooming beneath her head like a dark halo.

Lila was still screaming. A daema had her by the waist, its claws sunk deep into her sides, lifting her like prey. Her legs kicked, slipping against the broken floorboards, a sound like sobbing tearing from her throat.

Louise stood frozen near the hallway arch, pale as bone, one hand pressed to her chest like she was trying to hold her heart inside. Her eyes locked on mine, but she couldn’t move.

And behind her, another daema turned. It moved with a slow, deliberate grace—head cocked, nostrils flaring as it scented her fear. Then it lunged.

I plunged into the room, my astral form tearing ahead of me like a ghost on fire. It slammed into the daema lunging for Louise, knocking it sideways with a snarl that peeled the air apart.

I didn’t wait to see if she ran.

Lila was next.

The creature hoisted her higher, arms stretching like it meant to tear her apart. Her scream cut through me, high and keening. Then the daema hurled her like she weighed nothing.

I threw myself forward.

Caught her mid-air.

We hit the ground like falling stars. I twisted, taking the brunt of it, my arm curled tight around her trembling frame.

“Stay down,” I muttered, already rising. Her eyes were wild, breath ragged—but alive.

The daema turned on me. Its mouth opened in a ragged grin, blood between its teeth.

My blade answered.

It surged into my hand like lightning through skin—solid, familiar, mine.

I struck.

Steel met bone. The creature’s head split at the neck, a spray of blood arcing as it collapsed.

My astral form shredded a daema beside the couch, ripping through its skull with a burst of raw energy. Bone cracked. Flesh tore. It collapsed in a heap of twitching limbs and smoke.

Then—

A low growl snapped my focus. Another daema, larger than the rest, crouched at the edge of the room—half-human, half-myth. Its limbs were too long, joints bending wrong, skin stretched taut over a face too smooth, too still—like a mask carved from bone.

Its eyes were locked on Louise.

She didn’t move—as if its gaze alone rooted her to the wall.

My heart stuttered—the daema lunged.

My astral form collided with the gorgon mid-air, knocking it sideways in a blur of snarls and flailing limbs. It hit the floor hard, limbs scrambling. I was already there.

I drove my blade into its torso, twisting deep. It shrieked—high and wet and furious—as blood sprayed across the wall in a fan of black and red. I ripped the sword free and let it fall.

The last two daema rushed me at once—fangs bared, claws slick with blood not their own. One cocked its head as if listening to a sound I couldn’t hear. The other grinned.

I didn’t flinch.

My astral slammed into one, spine-first, driving it through the coffee table in an explosion of splinters. I met the other head-on, steel singing as it cleaved into flesh.

It shrieked, clawing at its own neck, trying to hold itself together. Too late. It dropped.

The last one barely had time to scream before my astral engulfed it in raw light. Magic burned through it, turning sinew to ash.

And then—

Silence.

My astral flickered out, the connection severing like a snapped nerve—leaving a hollow echo in my skull.

I stood in the wreckage, swaying on my feet. Blood soaked the walls. daema pieces steamed where they’d fallen, the stench of severed flesh and magic hanging thick in the air.

Not the torn furniture or scorched walls—but the stillness.

Everyone else was gone.

Either dead… or smart enough to run.

Only three remained.

Louise sat slumped against the far wall, trembling but alive. Darcy hadn’t moved, but her chest rose in shallow, uneven breaths. Lila knelt beside her, arms wrapped tight around her middle, her face streaked with blood and tears.

Relief hit me like a blade to the chest—sharp, staggering. They were alive.

My grip slackened. The sword slipped from my fingers and clattered to the floor. My knees almost followed it.

I forced a breath into my lungs. Then another.

The fight was over.

The room was still.

But my hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

The front door exploded inward, wood splintering, metal hinges shrieking.

I moved before thinking—sword up, magic coiling around my spine, ready to strike.

But it wasn’t a daema.

“Xander,” I breathed, lowering the blade—but my pulse didn’t slow.

He stepped into the ruin like he’d walked into a crime scene—eyes sharp, cataloging every detail, from the blood on the walls to the blade in my hands.

“What happened?” he asked, voice tight—but not at me.

“Wait…” My grip tightened on the hilt. “What the hell are you doing here?”

His gaze snapped to mine.

“Where’s Eve?”

My stomach dropped like a stone.

“I left her upstairs.”

The words tasted wrong. Her face flashed through my mind—eyes wide, body tense, begging to run.

I told her to stay.

Xander’s jaw locked. No hesitation.

We bolted.

The stairs blurred beneath my feet. Panic clawed up my throat, hot and choking. Magic flaring around me, wild and unstable, like it could tear me apart from the inside.

The attic door was ajar.

No .

I slammed my shoulder into it. Wood cracked against the wall as it flew open.

Empty.

The air inside was still. Too still. Her scent lingered—barely—but the warmth was already gone.

“Eve?”

Her name tore out of me, raw and breathless.

Silence.

The cold dropped through me like a blade—straight through the ribs, all the way down.

She was gone.

And it was my fault.